Long time grower, first time Coco Grow

Hi Guys n Gals - I'm taking a leap into coco growing, so I thought I'd best get other people thoughts before I dive in!

Set-up
I'm using my tent again, a Hydrolab jobbie that's 1.2m tall, 1m wide and 60cm deep.... not massive, but it suits me perfectly and doesn't upset the wife!

My trusty Cannatronics 400w HPS is getting another outing, with a standard inlet fan and similar outlet fan with carbon filter.

I've previously grown upto 6 plants at once in my little tent, but it tended to get a little crowded, so I'm opting for 3 this time.

Medium
The new bit is the medium - Coco - which from what I'm reading on the forums is the way to go. I've got myself a 50l bag of Coco Professional Plus+, plus a 10l bag of perlite. They'll be in 11 litre pots, with approximately 25% perlite, 75% coco.

I'm going to veg for about 5 weeks (16hrs a day), then bang her on to 12/12 around new Year.

Seeds
Train Wreck, White Widow x Big Bud, Bubble Gummer (all feminised)
I've got some spares in case these play-up, but hopefully they'll all be good. They're currently on toilet tissue and as soon as they've popped they're going in Root Riot grow cubes, which have been fantastic to me in the past.

Nutes
I'm sticking with what I know on this one: Biobizz Grow and Biobizz Bloom. Yes, I know they're not coco-specific nutes, but from what I read they'll do the job just fine.

Questions

1. I'm considering topping them to try bush them out a bit - any thoughts on this?
2. My plan is to transplant the root riot cubes straight into the main pots... or should I get them going in small pots first?
3. To save a bit of cash I was considering using my 125w CFL (Blue spectrum) for the initial veg... or would I be better just diving straight in with the HPS?
4. I'm reading mixed reports on whether or not to rinse my coco - says on the bag (and in a few forums posts) that it's good to go as it is.
5. Would it be a good idea to add some fish bone & blood meal to my grow medium? I always do this with soil and I've had cracking results in the past, I presume it won't hurt to bang a bit in there?

P.S. I'm hoping that during this grow they'll be a law change in the UK with regard to growing cannabis (I can live in hope!)... seems to be a lot of talk about it, especially with the Washington & Colorado legalising, and our government have been performing an inquiry in drugs this year, with the results due before Christmas.... you never know, David Cameron might give us an early Christmas present!!!

the main thing with coco is its inert, so you have to feed more or less everytime. i think your nutes should be fine to use as i use non specific coco nutes aswell. with the canna coco pro there is no need to wash it is already well buffered and ready to use. with the lighting issue i think use your 125 cfl for the first 2 weeks only. once they start going switch to ur hps for faster better results. with adding bonemeal ect never tried it but i have remixed old coco into soiless mixes and added homemade compost with no ill effects. its all trial and error till u get dialed in. hope it goes well ill be keeping an eye out on the thread see how it goes.

Cheers mate - great advice!I'll use the CFL for the first fortnight then - seems like overkill using the HPS so early in the cycle.... and obviously it'll save a shedload of electricity too.And I'll give the bonemeal a go, but I'll go easy on it... I'm sure they'll thank me for it.I'm hoping for a good result; my last few grows in soil have been really successful, but this time I wanted to improve things further and coco seems like a good way to do that.

And once my babies have sprouted I'll start a grow diary on this thread....

U should try placing them in small smart pots first and transplant at the first sight of a root. The smart pots with the coco will make root zone explode.

I would still rinse just to be on the safe side. I wouldn't want something that small and simple to cause a fuck up later and with a 5week veg. If u do it right you're gonna have to top just to keep them at a managble height. U should top early and look into scroging

I've been growing with coco for a couple of years now, and what meetjoeblow said is 100% correct, ALWAYS wash the coco before using it. I've had too many burned seedling and clones from unwashed 'premium" coco to even consider using unwashed coco ever again. Just not worth the risk.

Feroce said:

I've been growing with coco for a couple of years now, and what meetjoeblow said is 100% correct, ALWAYS wash the coco before using it. I've had too many burned seedling and clones from unwashed 'premium" coco to even consider using unwashed coco ever again. Just not worth the risk.

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been as coco has no nutrient content!! i believe it must be you burning your plants with feeding too much to early. canna coco pro is really well buffered and ready to use out the bag.

AMCHEESIER said:

been as coco has no nutrient content!! i believe it must be you burning your plants with feeding too much to early. canna coco pro is really well buffered and ready to use out the bag.

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You're right coco has no nutrients but it can still burn a plant. That's y they wash and buffer it. If I remember correctly it has a log of salts in it which contribute to this but don't quote me on that. Honestly different manufactures process their media different. Just like there is a difference between coke and cola. One could rinse once and say its good to go and another could soak it for hours and wash 3-4xs. It's just best to be safe but it's not really worth debate. Even if it does manage to burn with coco all u have to do is flush and feed and she'll be good as new

Correction "a lot of salts"

Small pots to start so you can keep them close together under the light. I soak my coco in a rubbermaid tub full of water. When done I find cupfulls of sand. I ph adjust my water and let is soak for hours/day to make sure the ph is correct. Do not add stuff to the coco other than perhaps epsom salt. I've vegged under HPS no problem. Just make sure plants are past the 4th node or it may skew gender ratios. If you just pull the tops down with baling wire it will work better than topping.

Cheers for all your replies guys.... which I foolishly read only after I'd put them in the big pots, without washing the coco!!!

I'm sure it'll be fine anyway - as with most things regarding growing, some say one thing, others say another... different strokes for different folks!

As per usual, the root riot cubes have gone crazy... the main root was coming out of the bottom before the top had hardly shed it seed case!!!

My medium ended up being about 60-70% coco, then the rest perlite with a little bit of fish blood n bone meal added for good measure. That's for 3 of my 4 pots though. The 4th pot is from my own compost with a little bit of bone meal added and some perlite. I figured I should see what results I get from that puppy - I intend on not feeding it unless it looks like it needs it. The compost has been composting for a good couple of years, so I've got 'high' hopes for it (see what i did there?).

Anyway, they're all in the big pots now (11 litre) under my 125w CFL (blue spec). I also just fired up my old, cheapo inlet fan... its fooked... it's that old adage - buy cheap, pay twice! So I'm going to relegate my outlet fan to inlet and I've just ordered a new RVK for outlet, which I plan on creating my own acoustic box for (using a cardboard box and some expanding foam).